How to fix floating objects during weight paint deformation?
Alrighty, I figured a way to make it work. I adjusted the geometry to place edge loops around joints and under the spines so deformation could happen more naturally without such drastic vertex movement. Also increased the length of the spines further into the mesh a little so it takes much more (unrealistic) deformation to help hide the motion. Its not as ideal as having it not move relatively but it'll work for my use case.


The teeth were pretty easy to fix, just painting the weight to the hierarchy correctly made it work. It just confused me when in conjunction with the tail spine issue.